2nd Best Studio was an opportunity to rethink what a creative studio could be. Joining as Executive Creative Director, I was brought in to help define a clearer strategic and creative direction for the studio. The starting point was not simply a new identity. It was a question of how the studio could create a stronger relationship between its purpose, positioning, creative expression and day-to-day practice.
2021-2022
SEC2ND
2nd Best Studio
Role
Executive Creative Director
The challenge
2nd Best had an ambition to work differently within the creative industry, with a focus on purpose-driven organisations and ideas that could contribute to meaningful change. The challenge was to turn that ambition into something more coherent and tangible.
I worked on defining the studio’s positioning, narrative and strategic direction, while also looking at how those principles could influence the creative work itself. This meant moving between the larger question of what the studio stood for and the practical systems needed to make that position visible and usable.
Approach
I developed a unified strategic vision across positioning, narrative, messaging and visual expression. This included defining the studio’s brand direction, developing its identity and expression, and creating strategic tools and principles that could support consistent work across different contexts.
Creative direction became part of the studio’s infrastructure. Rather than treating brand, communication and individual projects as separate outputs, I worked to establish a shared set of principles that could guide how ideas were developed, presented and brought into the world.
This extended into audience journeys, visual and verbal systems, new formats and experimental pilots. I also worked closely with the wider team, mentoring creatives and helping establish ways of working that could bring different disciplines and perspectives together around a shared direction.
The work
The result was a more coherent strategic and creative framework for the studio, connecting its mission with its positioning, identity and output. The work moved between strategy and expression: defining what 2nd Best stood for, shaping how it communicated that position, and translating it into a system that could support both the studio itself and the work created for its clients.
Disciplines
Narrative strategy
Brand strategy & positioning
Creative direction
Messaging frameworks
Strategic communication
Copywriting (web, strategy decks, film)
Design (art and UI/UX)
For me, the project became an exploration of creative direction as infrastructure: creating the conditions in which ideas can become stronger, different disciplines can move in the same direction, and a studio’s purpose can be expressed through the work rather than existing separately from it.
Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greator Festival 2022 campaign looked forward to a moment that had taken on new meaning: being together again. Built around the theme “Celebrate Change”, the campaign connected the festival’s promise of personal growth with a wider sense of anticipation for shared experiences, live encounters and collective energy.
2020
Greator
Celebrate Change (FES22)
Role
Creative Director
The challenge
After a prolonged period of distance and disruption, the prospect of gathering in person carried a different weight. The campaign needed to acknowledge this shift without becoming a message about the pandemic itself. Instead, it needed to look forward, capturing the renewed significance of shared experiences and giving people a reason to look ahead to the festival.
The challenge was to translate this sentiment into a compelling digital-first campaign, creating a narrative that could build anticipation for the festival while connecting emotionally with an audience preparing to come together again.
Approach
This thinking shaped the central film narrative: “We thought we knew what it meant to be together. But, did we? So, if we can be together again, let’s celebrate.” The voice-over reframed the festival as an opportunity to appreciate something that had once felt ordinary, turning the campaign theme into a timely and human invitation.
I developed the campaign concept and narrative around “Celebrate Change”, translating the idea into a digital-first creative direction. The hero film carried the emotional proposition, using the voice-over to establish a connection between the experience of the pandemic and the anticipation of being together again.
The campaign extended across shorter video variations, social assets, banners and carousels for Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, supported by landing pages, email and newsletters. Each format played a role in carrying the central idea from initial awareness through to consideration and conversion.
I also directed external agency work on paid social storytelling and copy, collaborating with copywriters on email, newsletter and landing-page content. Across multiple iterations and campaign phases, I worked to preserve the emotional core of the narrative while adapting the messaging to different audiences, formats and objectives.
The work
The campaign launched during Greator Festival Online, introduced by Oliver Kahn, connecting a digital festival experience with a message that looked ahead to being together again. The central idea gave the campaign a shared emotional foundation, linking the festival’s theme to the circumstances in which it was developed and the experiences audiences were looking forward to.
Across film, social, paid media and owned channels, the work brought narrative development, copywriting and creative direction together within one campaign system. It showed how a timely human insight could shape an integrated campaign, giving different formats a consistent story while allowing the message to evolve across the audience journey.
Disciplines
Campaign strategy
Narrative development
Creative concept
Copywriting (web, strategy decks, film)
Film & motion direction
Social media campaigns
Paid media storytelling
Audience journeys
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Deze selectie laat twee kanten van mijn werk zien die relevant zijn voor de rol van Marketing & Brand Lead bij Thermae 2000: en het vertalen van een centraal idee naar een samenhangende campagne en het ontwikkelen van een heldere merkpositionering. In beide projecten verbind ik strategisch denken met creatieve uitvoering.
SEC2ND
2nd Best Studio
Greator
Celebrate Change